#dangai

Watching this video what strikes me is how the presenter is able to illustrate the important points she is making throughout her script’s narrative, with Ancient Danmei adaptation footage as well as scenes from other magnificent queer-coded historical CDramas, but there exists no other country on Earth you can replicate this for.

I was only vaguely interested in the substance of this setting-the-record-straight video (I knew most of this history already) but what really hit me was the extent of relevant visuals that could easily be assembled to support the text. In the opening introduction above, she is able to illustrate her points using visuals from several Chinese TV adaptations created from Danmei novels - Love Is More Than A Word; The Untamed ; WoH, and still didn’t run out of content for the next 20 minutes.

I have often wondered why it is that Chinese TV and China-based streaming platforms have dozens of EPIC, including fantasy, wuxia, cultivation, detective, martial, and imperial court Danmei or other queer homoerotic story adaptations featuring MM or FF love on a grand, 50+ episodes scale, but there is not even one single gay Game of Thrones in the ostensibly more “accepting, non-restrictive and uncensored” Anglophone queer media sphere.

While China has these in dozens, many rivalling or exceeding GoT or Marvel scope of ambition, it would be hard to find five big budget, blockbuster queer cinematic masterpieces each, from the prolific filmmaking Anglosphere, even if you were to ask for the historical or costumed as well as any modern era queer, big-budget spectaculars to be combined. An interesting paradox, isn’t it?

- What’s the Reason the West has Not Produced Even One Gay GoT? -

This I think is a valid enquiry but rarely have I come across comparative media analysis such as this really honest, moving and illuminating reflection by a queer American person inspired by his multiple re-watches of CDrama, The Rise of Phoenixes, in which the author tries to wrestle with this very conundrum.

Very different perspective from how most western viewers of Chinese queer media usually approach evaluating these types of productions which are often produced by Chinese queer people themselves. This is definitely partially a result of evaluating the products of other peoples’ culture on the basis of naturalising and elevating the shortcomings of the media you grew up on, and then imposing them as the minimum standards for everyone else everywhere.

Even many international viewers who are fans of a Danmei novel before its adaptation seem to forget Danmei is meant to stand as a disruptive, anti western-centric force, in active resistance to normative discourses of western narratives, and still tend to evaluate them from the limits of what is available at home.

Consequently, Chinese Dangai and mainstream queer-coded CDramas depart from Japanese and other BL traditions by not being primarily concerned with the currently existing world of individual queer students or salarymen as in Thailand, South Korea or Japan, but with imagining whole alternative worlds in which systemic transformations producing just, new civilisations can be carved out and impacted on by people who happen to possess same-sex desire and who use their queerness to change the world around them, not just who gets to sleep with whom.

It’s the idea of *transgressive male intimacy* that constitutes the central nervous system of Chinese BL, not merely transgressive male-male sex, hence a much more socially and politically panoramic romantic, emotional, and erotic potential is contained within a queer Chinese TV production (A Couple of Mirrors), even when it’s queer-coded (Nirvana In Fire) or an original screen play that’s barely ambiguous (Killer And Healer) or less covert (ABO Desire) than its international peers. Among regional BL film producing countries only China offers this magnitude of narrative depth and expanse at scale and it’s always nice to see that acknowledged.

Important to remember that China has no media rating system according to age, so there is no such thing as *NC*, *Adults Only*, *PG*, and so on; if a piece of media passes the quality test in China, that makes it equally good for everyone to consume. This means both a minor child and an adult can be inspired, informed, validated and entertained by the same outstanding works, for example Ne Zha 2.

Sort of adds another layer to perspectives on censorship and media freedom when it comes to diversity and accessibility of explicit and implicit queer representation; a single, narrow story that’s allowed to be told about men, masculinity and sexuality in any time period for a restricted audience, versus a wider creative pallet of options that are available for the enjoyment of the entire population of cinema and CDrama consumers.

Among other things, this comes in very handy for illustrating the odd script about the normalisation of queer love in China, both ancient and modern 😉.

Link to the Rise of Phoenixes article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/01/the-refreshing-gender-politics-of-the-rise-of-phoenixes

Link to the full video the clip comes from: The Romance of Male Concubines in the Han Dynasty of Ancient China - https://youtu.be/WMCl-4SKjbs?si=FYSpo-c78n19RGa_

Talk about the most short-lived drama release ever, not even totalling two hours if I recall. Creating this summary as I've seen a handful of confused friends, so here it goes!

It's going to be a long review because I sped through all 78 episodes and only properly watched the first two doors, but I got you. You'll get both the brief book rundown and the drama parts!

If you just wanna see the bromance (LOVE) parts please skip to section 4!!!!

1. Overview

Title: The Spirealm (kinda awful I'm sorry it's a mouthful) or 致命游戏 which means fatal game

Adapted From: Danmei (BL) Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu

Novel Prints: There are GORGEOUS Thai, Vietnamese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese versions printed, AND Singapore publisher Rosmei has signed the license for the ENGLISH version, probably going on sale this year (preview is here). You can still access fan translations by Taida on I think wordpress and someone else on Tumblr sorry bad memory (they did half and half each) if you'd like to read it for context. It is one of my FAVE danmeis EVER and I am a die-hard OG book fan, check out my full danmei review here.

Total Episodes: 78 (20 minutes each with the exception of last episode which 10 minutes, with several BTS not that I think we will get to see all of them yet)

Where to Watch (LOL): Erm considering that iQIYI China AND International took the episodes down, there is no legal way to watch this, BUT thanks to some cnetz with super fast and great wifi, we managed to get ripped HD versions without subs. iQIYI is very hard on copyright though, they've taken down several subbed and unsubbed versions already on YouTube, but you should type the titles of show into Twitter and the top tags will tell you where to access the raws and very little subbed episodes, that may also be taken down at any point. I have the Chinese raws but as it's hosted on a cloud, I had to pay to access it.

Main Characters: Lin Qiushi & Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie (in the novel) and Ling Jiushi & Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie (in the drama)

Produced By: iQIYI so for SURE they won't film it fully BL even if the original is, but I've seen enough bromance cuts

Main Actors: Xia Zhiguang (Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie) + Huang Junjie (Ling Jiushi)

2. Summary

Book (drama follows closely if not removing the supernatural premises): Lin Qiushi, a designer, opens the door to his home one day from inside and sees 12 iron doors outside. Confused, he opens one of them and arrives at a snow covered village in the mid of winter, and meets Ruan Baijie, who's a pretty, unusually tall and whiny/timid woman. They realise that they're in a horrifying door game, and they'll have to find a door and a key to get out, while battling a long-haired, human-eating deity. They, along with a few others, have to survive day after day until they get out, and on the first night, two people have died in gory ways. Ruan Baijie and Lin Qiushi partner each other, and despite seemingly timid and crying all the time, she saves Lin Qiushi a few times mysteriously, and Lin Qiushi finds himself trusting in Ruan Baijie.

They get through the door together and when they leave successfully, Lin Qiushi realizes that the people who died in the door will die in real life by some freak accident too - car accidents, forced suicides, a robbery gone wrong, a lift trapped in the air and going ablaze, and more. That night, Lin Qiushi wakes up to see a super handsome and tall Ruan Nanzhu at his bedside and this man feels familiar to him, but he can't put a finger on it. All he can think of when Ruan Nanzhu says his name is Ruan Baijie (ahem he would later find out who it is of course). Ruan Nanzhu takes him to his mansion in the suburbs where he meets a group of other people just like them, who're forced to go through the doors for survival. Ruan Nanzhu then invites him to join Obsidian, his organization.

Through various doors, Lin Qiushi grows and supports a super intelligent and powerful Ruan Nanzhu, falls in love with him, gets through many many scary doors with him and some of their other team members, makes friends, loses them to the cruelty of the doors as they ponder over what the door means, and what being alive/dying means.

And at the end of it, at the end of of it all, when they're all good and living their life, Lin Qiushi also finds out what Ruan Nanzhu's secret is, and the lengths to which Ruan Nanzhu went to, just to be with him.

Drama: Ling Jiushi is a VR game designer who gets pulled into a game, and he meets Ruan Baijie (in his male form) right off the bat (SO NOT CROSSDRESSING I AM SAD). All the parts are actually the same as the novel, albeit with the game setting and Ling Jiushi and Ruan Nanzhu's identity adjustments to suit the game premise. Most of the other doors and their lines are the same, just that the ending is a bit more confusing than it could be. There's a big bad as well and they actually show the opposing organizations when in the novel, these other organizations aside from Obsidian didn't even actually have a face or goal to them.

3. Characters

^ Them in the book (based on manhua that never got to go live LOL) (RNZ/RBJ left, LQS right)

^ Them in the show (LJS left, RNZ right)

Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie: MY HANDSOME CROSSDRESSING INTELLIGENT ALOOF BUT WHINY (WHEN IT COMES TO LIN QIUSHI) SASSY BOSS!!!! He's super mysterious and super thick-skinned too, and all he wants is Lin Qiushi's attention the moment he meets him. He's intrigued by Lin Qiushi's calm and his brains and the way he handles things, and has a lot of trust for him right from the get-go. This is also shown in the drama itself. As the leader of Obsidian, he cares a lot for his team members and his friends even if he doesn't show it most of the time, and the last thing he wants to do is lose Lin Qiushi, and he would do ANYTHING for Lin Qiushi, ANYTHING!!! Just look at him whining:

Ling Jiushi (Lin Qiushi): In the novel he's super calm, has quite a lot of brains, a little bit of a blur in the beginning but he's super smart as well. Worries a lot for Ruan Nanzhu and is also a loyal friend to some of his only friends, and feels a lot when he loses them. Falls gradually in love with Ruan Nanzhu in the novel, like they just belong together. In this drama, Ling Jiushi holds that same trust for Ruan Nanzhu, but in demeanour he seems a bit more like a klutz and and not as cool as he was in the novel, but I guess it's acceptable. Literally like the only thing he loves more than RNZ (maybe) is his cat Chestnut LOL and RNZ is NOT really happy about that but Chestnut LOVES RNZ

Yixie and Qianli: CUTEST TWINS ;-; WHO TREAT RNZ and LQS as their big brothers LOOK AT THEM BOWING AND RNZ/LJS like parents LMAO

A handful of other characters who will keep turning up and get your hearts ;-;

4. ALL FAVE BROMANCE MOMENTS + TROPES

THEY TOUCH EACH OTHER A LOT LIKE HOLDING HANDS AND TOUCHING FACES, PIGGY BACKING?!?! DID I MENTION FACE TOUCHING

WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP WHUMP THEY HELP EACH OTHER WHEN HURT OR GET HURT FOR EACH OTHER

AND WHEN THEY WAKE UP IN BED THE OTHER IS AT THEIR BEDSIDE

AND DID I MENTION HE FEEDS HIM IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

AND THAT THEY DATED UNDER THE FIREWORKS LIKE THE NOVEL DOES NOT EVEN HAVE THIS SHIT

AND THE KABEDONS

AND FINALLY RUAN NANZHU RIZZ OMG

5. Settings

They REALLY OUTDID THEMSELVES. THIS JUST FROM DOORS 1-6:

THEY LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THE NOVEL DESCRIBED!!!!

6. Overall Thoughts

PROS: This was NOT a cheap production, I'm telling you, they followed the cases very well and there're a lot of super recognisable lines, if not ALL of them, even if they changed the cases a little. I think they did it because in the novel originally, the author DOES leave a lot of details hanging like someone dies and you know he had a background and there are some shady things happening but the author NEVER actually goes into detail. So the drama did their best to cover these loopholes, even if it felt a little awkward at times. Money went into settings and attires and every damn thing, this looks EXPENSIVE. And if you've ever imagined each door and the bosses inside in your head, you might have felt chills go down your spine because damn did they really colour the book's settings for me (despite its differences). DID I MENTION that Xia Zhiguang really got the damn memo and he was a passable Ruan Nanzhu/Ruan Baijie who knew how to turn on his BL eyes. PLUS they really did some of the character deaths really well - they're technically some of the biggest parts of this story so ;-; (not two main of course)

CONS (maybe): They did away with the supernatural/horror premise and replaced it with a GAME premise, which means that there's a scientific element to it and the try to explain away stuff with the game, including the ending. I don't 100% get the ending, but the feel/vibe is about the same. Might not be for hardcore reader fans tho! They skipped out on a couple of doors, some of which were my faves, but it's fine, it's long enough LOL. They give away/explain some of the clues and surprises super early which means you don't get that added boom at the back as well. Despite that, I have to say they tried to round up the loopholes from the book as much as they could and give it an explanation while tying elements/conspiracies across doors (probably also to save cast fees LOL). And as always it's not a solid ending, it's an open confusing one, and even more confusing than the book itself because THERE IS NO CERTAIN HAPPILY EVER AFTER WITH HUBBY for it (there is in the book tho, they live together happily every after). Secondl,y, I'd say HJJ's acting is a bit stiff and OOC compared to the novel, but Xia Zhiguang really made up for it.

-------

but here's the thing. i can't tell you how i know this, but for two three separate reasons, i can say: just trust, okay? we are not gonna get kicked in the teeth on this one. shit will fr be ROUGH in those last few episodes, bc as usual we're dealing with self-sacrificial idiots, plus people who are extremely damaged (priest girl sometimes i worry about your childhood). but i am here to promise that the ending will not let you down. you are safe, you are in trustworthy hands. <3

PS there's reasons youku had to sell it to wowow, right? don't forget that!

[edited to include The Boy Next World]

This is a quick introduction to some popular BL tropes that are fairly new to live-action BL:

wife chasing crematorium

substitute lover [edited]

transmigration

(Contains spoilers)

All corrections and critiques are welcome.